Adoption!
by Itadakimasu
Summary: STORY is under: Liquid Fire ((note: lady cassandra and itadakimasu will be co-writing this fic)) thx 4 ur reviews!
1. Default Chapter

AN: Hi, it's me with yet another fic, I don't know why I'm making another one, I guess I'm just weird and all! Anyway, I hope you all like it, but whether you do or not, please review! ^^  
  
-_-_-_-  
  
[part 1: adopted]  
  
Mr. Higurashi rushed his wife over to the emergency delivery room, his panted heavily while pushing her wheelchair. She was about to give birth, it was her first child.  
  
"Quick, quick! If you want her to survive!" cried out the nurse that was beside his wife, the one holding an IV tube up. Something had gone wrong with the pregnancy, terribly wrong. It seemed as though the baby was intertwined in her womb, almost choked. It had stayed in that position for over 24 hours. The woman's life was on the line between death and survival. Tears ran down her husband's face while she cupped it gently, telling him that everything was going to be all right. But it was the irony of it that had made him smile just a little. Usually he was the optimistic one, and she, the pessimistic of the two, yet the situation was completely turned around now. By the time he had finished rambling on in his own thoughts, they had reached the delivery room. The young nurse beside his wife signaled the two other people that were in the room to lift the woman up on a stretcher. With a few struggles, they managed to do so. One of the nurses was about the close the door on Mr. Higurashi's face when she was interrupted rather rudely by him.  
  
"What do you think you're doing? I have a right to be in that room!" he shouted out in a perplexed voice, weren't fathers usually WANTED in the delivery room?  
  
"I'm sorry, Mr. Higurashi, normally you WOULD be in that room, but right now, the situation is too critical to have you inside there, you might distract her attention, and she would be focused on you instead of the baby and what she is doing." The nurse tried to calm him down, keeping her voice and tone hushed so that almost nobody could hear their conversation.  
  
"What the. . .?" Mr. Higurashi threw his hands in the air, he tried to grab the nurse's arm as she went inside the delivery room once again, but she was too quick. She turned around once more.  
  
"This area is off limits, Mr. Higurashi, you are not allowed in here. If you do, somehow manage to set your foot inside, you will be immediately detained by medical staff and we will be forced to send you to the police. Have a good day, and we will try our personal best to save both the baby and its mother." The nurse slammed the door to his face, leaving him devastated. No matter what happened, the baby being born was going to be his, and if his wife or child were going to die, didn't he have a right to be there at their last moments? To think that he would have to leave them at this moment. . .  
  
Mr. Higurashi sat down on the chairs in the waiting area while holding his head in his hands, trying not to rip the few pieces of hair he still had out. He let out a disappointed groan and decided to walk around the hospital a little to calm his moods down. As he was about to pass the coffee machine, he saw a little room, full of newly born babies, wrapped in tiny clothes and pink or blue blankets. He stared into the window, his sweaty palms pressing against the cold glass.  
  
"God, please, let them survive! They are my life!" Mr. Higurashi pleaded towards the sky, hoping for the best. He knew there was absolutely nothing he could do but pray. "I'm not asking for too much, am I? I haven't done anything truly evil in my life, I'm just a normal person, but every person needs another to love, so please, spare their lives, even if you decide to take mine somehow." He closed his eyes gently and walked away from the room full of babies, deciding to sit down and stay still at the waiting room. That way, if anything happened, he wouldn't be very far away.  
  
-_-_-_-_-  
  
(in the delivery room)  
  
"Quick! Give me that blade! We have to perform a caesarian operation!" The doctor shouted out to the nurse, completely aware that the operation was going to be risky, but it was their best chance.  
  
"Here! But that operation can kill her!"  
  
"Don't question my orders! If we decide to deliver the baby the normal way, she would be even more in danger!"  
  
"May I ask why, doctor?" the patient asked, clenching her teeth because of the pain that was clouding over her.  
  
"Delivering a child that way would take a long time, longer than a caesarian, the child would have been inside you for too long that day and you will have had a toxic reaction. By then, it would have been strangled to death in your womb too." The doctor tried to distract her from the pain, he hadn't put an anesthetic in her, so it was going to be even harder for the woman. He thought of the little newborn boy he had at home, and decided instantly, that if he couldn't save this woman and her child, he would quit being a doctor, not because he was bored of the profession, but he didn't deserve to do the job if he couldn't save any lives.  
  
The blade sliced through the woman's skin, she wimped in pain and nearly passed out at the increasing hurt that seemed the envelop her completely. She looked down and saw blood pouring out.  
  
"Don't look down, it'll make you dizzy, you'll be even more at risk. You're doing OK." The doctor knew though, that the woman was far from all right, but he guessed she knew it too; he could see her smile at him as she nodded her head.  
  
Such a nice person, I swear to God now that I'll save her, the doctor thought, he was determined this time.  
  
"All right, I can see the baby. This is the hard part of the operation. Get ready!" he screamed out to his team of nurses and to his patient.  
  
-_-_-_-_-  
  
Mr. Higurashi couldn't take it anymore, he walked over towards the doors of the delivery room and stood outside of them while clicking his fingers, something he always did when he was nervous. He sighed in frustration and begged for the doors to open so he could at least get a glimpse of what was going on.  
  
"Excuse me Mr." a nurse tapped him on his shoulder. "But waiting outside the doors like that is prohibited."  
  
This one was the final straw.  
  
"I DO NOT CARE IF IT IS PROHIBITED OR NOT! MY WIFE AND MY UNBORN CHILD ARE STUCK IN THERE AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON! THEY MIGHT BE DEAD FOR ALL I KNOW! SO REALLY, I THINK IT'S BEST IF I STAND OUT HERE BECAUSE I NEED TO KNOW IMMEDIATELY, NOT ONE MINUTE LATER, NOT ONE SECOND LATER, IF ANYTHING HAS HAPPENED!"  
  
The nurse backed away, surprised at his reaction, and something quite unexpected happened. She smiled.  
  
"That's great, Mr. Higurashi. But we prefer it if you tone down a little!" she walked away from him, apparently about to continue her duties, when he called her back.  
  
"Thanks, this really means a lot to me."  
  
"No problem."  
  
Suddenly, a scream could be heard from the delivery room, it was high- pitched, the sound of it alone could break ear drums. And just as it came, it died down again. Mr. Higurashi frantically turned around again, expecting the worst, but hoping for the best.  
  
The doctor came out, taking off his blood covered gloves and invited him in the room.  
  
"Where is she?" Mr. Higurashi asked.  
  
The doctors and nurses looked down fallen.  
  
"CONGRATULAIONS! You have just had a baby boy! We'll show you the room to your wife and son!"  
  
Mr. Higurashi sighed in relief, tears forming yet again in his dark brown eyes. He wiped them away with his palm and shook the doctor's hand furiously while thanking him again and again.  
  
"May I ask your name?"  
  
"Yes you may! I am Ishizaka, Mizone Ishizaka."  
  
-_-_-_-_-  
  
Mr. Higurashi walked inside his wife's room while congratulating her on giving her first birth. He looked at the tiny child that she held in her hands, his face was so delicate, his hands so tiny. He looked like a doll, but in truth he was not.  
  
"What should we call him?" he asked his wife.  
  
"Why don't you decide a name?" she suggested, her husband had always been the good one at names.  
  
"No, I think you should. After all, you gave birth to him."  
  
"Thank you. When I was a child, there was this legend that I heard so often, of a boy from Japan and a girl from a faraway country and time. I can't remember the name of the boy though. When I heard that story and its ending, I said to myself, that if I grew up and had children of my own, I would name them their names." She had a faraway look in her eyes, as if trying to see something that was not there, grasp something that was unreachable.  
  
"Do you mean, is it that legend? The one with the boy that was half human, half youkai?" he asked.  
  
"Yes! You know it too?"  
  
"Of course. I grew up with a grandfather that was obsessed with legends after all."  
  
"Do you know the boy's name?"  
  
"Yes, it's. . .Inu-yasha."  
  
"Then Inu-yasha it shall be then." She tickled the chin of her newborn son and smiled at the chuckle she got from him. He was a quiet one, not loud like her friends had said he would have been. The doors bursted open in an instance and a nurse asked Mr. Higurashi to step out of the room.  
  
"Oh. Mr. Higurashi, there's something that I must discuss with you." The doctor had a serious look on his face.  
  
"What is it?" he asked questioningly.  
  
"It's your wife, she doesn't know this yet, but, well, while we were operating, we found that she was growing a tumor inside of her, that's why the baby's position was not usual, and we had to take it out. But that's not all I have to say, we also had to take away some of the organs it had managed to manifest. She can't bear any more children."  
  
"A tumor? Is she going to be all right? And what do you mean she can't bear any more children? I want an explanation!" by this time, he was already fuming off the top of his head.  
  
"Calm down Mr. Higurashi! This is a hospital! Not an amusement park! And yes, to answer your question, she is going to be all right, thankfully, we took the tumor out when it was at its first stage, so you don't have to worry about such extremities as cancer or growth of the tumor. But because we had to take out a few organs, she's not going to be able to bear any children. It's not that she's not allowed to, it's that she really is not able to."  
  
Mr. Higurashi was shocked at the mention of this, he and his wife had always wanted to have two children, preferably one girl, one boy, but their dreams were now shattered. He couldn't bear to tell his wife this, it was going to be too painful for him and her to do so.  
  
"Fortunately, sir, there is an alternative." The doctor said.  
  
"And what is that? I'm willing to try anything."  
  
"Adoption."  
  
-_-_-_-_-_-  
  
[2 and a half years later]  
  
Mr. and Mrs. Higurashi walked in while holding their son's small hand, they were at an adoption center that was situated on the edge of town. They had decided to come here because babies at the center were almost never adopted, they had to stay in the place for almost their whole lives. It was highly unpopular because of its faraway location.  
  
"Come in! We don't usually have visitors." The lady smiled at them and offered them a seat, but it was declined.  
  
"Well? Are you searching for a girl or a boy?" she asked them.  
  
"A girl."  
  
"Then come right here, to this section!" she pointed towards the room that was labeled "girls". The babies here were all dressed in pink, cotton dresses.  
  
The two looked around the room, trying to decide which baby each of them liked the most, there were so many in here! And all were so beautiful too, but one came to their direct attention, it looked different then the rest, the eyes, everything. Mr. Higurashi whispered something in his wife's ear and she nodded at it.  
  
"Excuse me." They both said at the same time.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"I think we've decided."  
  
"And which of the babies shall it be?" she asked.  
  
"This one." He said while pointing to the baby girl.  
  
"Right this way."  
  
All three of them sat down in the fold-up chairs provided, they were handed over a form to fill in.  
  
"Please write the name you wish the child to have, your address, and signature." The woman handed them a pen.  
  
Mr. Higurashi handed the form over to his wife, signaling her to write the name of the child down. He still remembered her dream of having two children and their names.  
  
In the small, delicate writing, she penned down the name of the child.  
  
"Kagome." Was what was written on the form.  
  
"And shall she have your last name?" the lady asked.  
  
"No, I think, I'll create one on my own."  
  
Mrs. Higurashi pushed the form over to her husband this time, after all, names were both their decisions.  
  
"Hmm, Kagome, I wonder what your last name will be? Ahh, I've got the perfect one! Shiroi. Kagome Shiroi. Because she is white as snow and beautiful as it also."  
  
As he wrote down the name of his newly acquired child, he imagined how complete his family would be now, and smiled at the future ahead of him. Mr. Higurashi signed the form and gave it to the lady.  
  
"That's it sir! We're all done! She's absolutely yours now!"  
  
The Higurashis picked up their daughter, kissing it one by one on the cheek, they walked out of the building and jumped into their car.  
  
Unknown to them, a certain two and a half year old boy was scowling deeply.  
  
-_-_-_-_-  
  
[15 years later]  
  
"Ahhh," Kagome yawned as she stretched on her bed. She had grown up to be quite beautiful, her long wavy hair was as smooth as silk, her blue eyes melted everyone's heart, and her white skin was like the snow itself.  
  
She blinked as she saw herself in the mirror, something just wasn't right, what was it?  
  
Kagome screamed in realization, during the night, someone had wrecked her face up with putting honey and drawing on it with permanent marker pen. That somebody was going to die!  
  
"INUYASHA!" she screamed out as she ran to his room.  
  
"The kids, I don't know why they hate each other so much!" Mrs. Higurashi said to her husband as she sighed.  
  
-_-_-_-_-_-  
  
AN: Hey! This isn't going to be a school fic, they're on holiday! Anyway, please review this story and tell me what you think ^^, I like reviews! 


	2. a Bet and a Surprise

AN: Thank you for the reviews ^^ I can't believe I actually got some! ^^, please review again! This is probably the fastest update I've made!  
  
-_-_-_-_-  
  
"The kids," Mrs. Higurashi sighed, "I don't know why they just hate each other so much!"  
  
"Do you think we can trust them?" Her husband asked with a curious look on his eyes.  
  
"Well, they're not little children anymore."  
  
"I think even little children would behave better than those two mixed together!" this got a laugh from his wife.  
  
[{flashbacks}]  
  
Inu-yasha tearing up Kagome's doll.  
  
Kagome breaking all of Inu-yasha's limited collection toy soldiers.  
  
15 year old Inu-yasha reading Kagome's diary.  
  
Kagome announcing on the school radio that Inu-yasha liked guys.  
  
[{end}]  
  
"That's true, remember our shock when Inu-yasha told Kagome that she was adopted as soon as she could talk?"  
  
"Yeh, we had to ground him for two whole months!" Mr. Higurashi picked up his jacket that was hung on the door and kissed his wife's forehead, patting her on the head. They smiled at each other as he pushed the door, heading outside the house.  
  
"We'll talk about this at night with the kids." He said while waving his hand.  
  
"Sure. Have a safe trip and come back safely!" Mrs. Higurashi picked up the dishes and placed them in the sink while turning on the water tap. She accidentally put it on full blast and all the water sprayed directly at her face, not forgetting to wet her clothes too. "Ahh, this always happens to me!" she grumbled, just as Kagome entered the room.  
  
"Ah, what's wrong?" Kagome asked.  
  
"Oh it's nothing honey! I just have to go and change before I clean the dishes, the water sprayed at me again!"  
  
"Again? You should really be careful with that sink! Here, you go change and I'll clean the dishes for you." Kagome said to her.  
  
"Kagome-chan! It's alright, I can do it myself!" but Kagome was already heading towards the sink, Mrs. Higurashi smiled at the girl and walked out of the kitchen, when she stopped suddenly in the middle of her walk. "Kagome-chan, what happened to your face?"  
  
"You mean you didn't notice before?" Kagome asked, she was surprised yet again at how unattentive to detail Mrs. Higurashi was.  
  
"Nope."  
  
"Inu-yasha."  
  
"I see." Mrs. Higurashi continued to walk towards her bedroom.  
  
"Feh! Always playing the good girl aren't you, KA-GO-ME?" a mocking voice came from behind Kagome's back, smirking slightly at the thought of how angry Kagome must've been. Inu-yasha had never considered the girl as his sister, an annoying enemy for sure, but never would he accept her into the family. As a kid he had even forced her to call their parents, Mr and Mrs. Higurashi instead of mom and dad or he would beat up on her. All this was to make their parents distant from the girl, but the only thing that happened was that they loved her even more.  
  
"What do you mean, jerk?" as a result of him being so mean towards her, Kagome had never considered Inu-yasha as her brother too; people said that adopted siblings were always closer to each other, either because one wanted to make the other feel at home or they were just happy to be living in the same house; none of these were the case with Inu-yasha and Kagome.  
  
"I mean, stop acting like you're some kind of fairy tale goody-goody princess!" Inu-yasha snared at Kagome and jerked his fist in the air.  
  
"For your information, I am not a "fairy-tale-goody-goody-princes". God knows that if I were a princess I would've cast you out of the family. And by the way, if you want to fight with me, bring it on!" Kagome had a black belt in all the martial arts, she had to learn it as a self defense mechanism against Inu-yasha. She could beat him up ever since she was 10 years old, but lately, he had gotten really strong.  
  
"You're too easy to fight, you're boring. . .I need a real challenge." Inu- yasha faked a yawn and stretched his arms a little, causing Kagome to burn in fury.  
  
"I hate you so much!" If there was one thing she hated, it was to be annoyed in the morning. She quickly wiped up the dishes and placed them in the rack, nearly cracking them in half.  
  
"I hate you too, so now we're even." Inu-yasha challenged her into a word fight.  
  
"I'm too lazy for this, I'm going to wash my face to get all of this stupid stuff you drew on it off! Idiot." Kagome mumbled and ran over to the bathroom.  
  
Inside the whole huge house, there is only one bathroom, Kagome thought, so if I stay in there long enough, sooner or later Inu-yasha will have to do his thing, but he can't get inside!  
  
Kagome giggled at the thought and skipped the rest of the way, Inu-yasha looked at her quizzically. She pushed the door of the bathroom closed and locked it, not forgetting to double bolt it too. She wanted it to be extra hard for Inu-yasha to ever get in.  
  
Kagome looked at all of the accessories on the table of the bathroom, face wash, body scrub, everything was there. She didn't really need all of the stuff except on a few occasional events. Like today, when Inu-yasha thought that drawing on people's faces was extremely funny for some reason.  
  
"Let's see, what was last time's recipe?" Kagome asked herself, picking up a few bottles. "If I mix this with this and this with this. . ." Kagome waited for a reaction from the soaps.  
  
For a while they did nothing, but suddenly the color started to shift and all of them started to blend in together.  
  
"There! The perfect recipe to get out pen marks from your face!" Kagome said ecstatically while wiping the substance on her face. A knock came on the door, disturbing her fun.  
  
"Who is it?" she asked through a muffled voice.  
  
"Mom."  
  
Kagome thought for a while and tried to recognize the voice, somehow, it didn't seem like her mother's at all, it was high-pitched, strange for some reason. Like it was all a disguise. Then something clicked in her head. It was Inu-yasha! Of course it was Inu-yasha! He'd done this trick a million times but she was not going to be fooled this moment!  
  
"Inu-yasha, I know it's you."  
  
"Aww, crap." Inu-yasha groaned.  
  
Kagome splashed water on her face, the pen marks were all gone now, she hummed a song to herself while filling in the bathtub with water. She wanted to take a bath.  
  
"One, Two, Three!" came a voice from the other side of the door, with a slight cracking noise.  
  
It fell down, breaking in half, and Inu-yasha's figure came inside the room, ready to throw Kagome out.  
  
"Well, well! Seems like the little princess wants to take herself a bath, right?" Inu-yasha asked her in a tone that annoyed Kagome to death.  
  
"Jerk! Now I can't take a bath of the door's like this!" Kagome screamed out in frustration, throwing her hands up in the air.  
  
Inu-yasha smiled, he had defeated Kagome today, it was so amusing to see her incredibly angry, that way, he knew what got on her nerves. Some said that getting into fights with each other was a form of affection; they were wrong, very, very wrong.  
  
Kagome looked at the pendulum clock in the middle of the living room and her eyes widened in shock. Her friends were about to pick her up today only five minutes from now! She ran upstairs towards her room, changing as quickly as possible, grabbing anything that was inside the closet. Unfortunately for her, it was a mismatched pair of socks and a weird sunflower dress that she hadn't worn in two years.  
  
"Bah! Who cares? I'm late already!" Kagome said while pulling on her socks, jumping on one leg. But luck wasn't going her way today, she tumbled down the stairs, spraining her ankle instantly.  
  
"Kagome?" came a voice from beside her.  
  
"Mom?"  
  
"Are you OK? What happened?" Mrs. Higurashi asked Kagome frantically, she was always scared about her clumsiness sometimes, it would get her into accidents!  
  
"Nothing mom! I'm OK! See!" Kagome winced as she stood on both feet and jumped around the living room. She hated to see Mrs. Higurashi so worried over her, it broke her heart.  
  
"OK then."  
  
A loud honking was heard from outside the house, it was obviously her friend's car.  
  
"KAGOME! WE'RE HERE!" cried out her friends all at once.  
  
"I KNOW YOU ARE! STOP BEING SO LOUD! THE COPS CAN COME HERE AND THEY'LL WONDER WHAT HAPPENED!"  
  
Everyone sweat-dropped.  
  
"I'm going!" Kagome waved good-bye to her mother, limping slightly on her bad leg. She hopped down towards the pavement and hopped into the car.  
  
"What's wrong, my dear Kagome?" Kouga asked.  
  
"Sprained my ankle."  
  
"Oh, are you alright, maybe I could carry you?" asked Mirokku, a slight glint could be seen in his eyes while he was winking at her.  
  
"Stop it you perv!" Sango threw her bag at Miroku as he rubbed his head in pain.  
  
"That is the 100th hit you have given him. Congratulations." Sesshoumaru said in a dead tone. Silence.  
  
Kagome's friends were all either one or two years older than her, which meant that she was in the same class as Inu-yasha. As a kid she had been really smart, winning the spelling bees, getting A's in school, then suddenly, her teachers decided to make her skip a grade, and she had ended up in Inu-yasha's class. Inu-yasha, on the other hand, had been dropped one, all his grades were either failing or near failing, even though his parents had forced him to take extra curricular lessons.  
  
-_-_-_-_-  
  
Inu-yasha secretly watched Kagome go away with all her friends, ever since the holidays had started, they had visited her everyday, as they had promised. Even those idiotic looking Sesshoumaru and Kouga guys. For them to be doing that to someone, they must've been really close.  
  
"Feh." Inu-yasha said to himself. "I don't want anybody to be that close to me, it's sick!" he walked back to the living room, recounting what had happened last year.  
  
[{flashback}]  
  
"I'm telling you Inu-yasha! If you ever, ever, bother Kagome-chan and make her cry like that again, I'll break your bones for sure!" A fifteen year old Sango said to him as she punched Inu-yasha in the face. A bruise instantly formed on his face.  
  
"B*tch!"  
  
"Who are you calling b*tch?" Kouga's voice approached him as he kicked Inu- yasha in the back.  
  
"Don't you dare do anything to her again! Do you understand me?" Sango held him by the neck, nearly choking him.  
  
"Y-yes."  
  
"We can't hear you." Sesshoumaru held a club in his hands, ready to beat Inu-yasha if he turned violent against them.  
  
"YES!" Inu-yasha screamed out in pain of Sango's grasp.  
  
He jumped into a defensive position.  
  
"I'm afraid that we're done with you now, Inu-yasha, good-bye." Miroku gathered the group, clicking his fingers together, and they left as quickly as they came.  
  
Kagome had never known what they had done for her.  
  
[{end of flashback}]  
  
"Yeh, her stupid friends allright." Inu-yasha rolled his eyes and sat down on the couch, lifting his feet up to rest them on the table. He couldn't help but be a little envious of Kagome, people were attracted to her, her personality, her smile; that's how she had gotten so many loyal friends in the first place. But nobody wanted to get close to Inu-yasha. Of course there was the minority, some stupid girls and their worshipping fan club, an idiotic guidance counselor that tried to open his shell, a transfer student that was nice to everyone. He didn't need people, not at all, that's what he told them, and suddenly the matter died down, and he was disregarded entirely.  
  
-_-_-_-_-  
  
"Oi, Kagome, did that idiotic Inu-yasha pick on you again?" asked Sango.  
  
"Yep, drew something on my face."  
  
"Bastard, he's going to pay for what he did!"  
  
"Calm down Sango-chan! It's nothing."  
  
"Umm, Kagome, me and the others discussed something last night."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"It's a bet, Kagome."  
  
"Heh? A bet?" she was surprised, her friends didn't usually make bets.  
  
"Well, it's this. . ." Sango whispered something in Kagome's ears, causing her eyes to gape wide open.  
  
"But, that's mean!" Kagome whined.  
  
"Well, it serves him right though!"  
  
"And we bet you can't do it." Miroku said as a matter of factly, he knew what she hated, she never liked to back down a challenge.  
  
"Well, you're on!" Kagome announced. "What are we betting on?"  
  
"My car." Sango said.  
  
"Your car?! Are you crazy?" Kagome had always loved Sango's car.  
  
"Nope, and if you win, I'll give you it. If you lose, no penalty to you or me, we just go on to our daily lives."  
  
"And how long do I have to do this bet?"  
  
"As long as the summer lasts. That's a long time, for your information."  
  
"Do you promise?" Kagome asked.  
  
"Yes. We're going to shake on it."  
  
The two girls shook a firm hand shake with each other.  
  
"It's a done deal then!" Kagome cried out.  
  
"That idiot will never know what hit him. . ." a malicious smile began to play on Kouga's lips.  
  
-_-_-_-_-  
  
[{at night}]  
  
Mr. Higurashi rung the doorbell to the house, he could hear his wife's loud footsteps rushing towards the door.  
  
"Tadaima!"  
  
"Okaeri!"  
  
He put his briefcase in the house and took of his coat, hanging it on the coat-hanger.  
  
"Well, let's tell them about it."  
  
The two gathered Kagome and Inu-yasha into the living room, a serious look on their faces. Something incredibly important was about to happen, Mr and Mrs Higurashi were never serious, especially at the same time.  
  
"Kids, we're going to be taking a holiday." Mr. Higurashi said.  
  
"You tell us to come down here for THAT?" Inu-yasha asked in surprise.  
  
"Shh, listen to me first!" his father commanded.  
  
"When I say we, I don't mean US, I mean, me and your mother." Mr. Higurashi said while pointing towards his wife, never lifting his strict glaze on Inu- yasha.  
  
"So what happens to us?" Kagome asked.  
  
"You are going to stay here." Mr. Higurashi's expression immediately softened towards Kagome, causing Inu-yasha to grunt a little.  
  
"You mean? ME, WITH HER? FOR HOW LONG?" Inu-yasha, by this time, was going crazy.  
  
"For the whole summer vacation, and, a little more."  
  
"How long, is a little more?" Kagome asked.  
  
"Umm, until the end of the year."  
  
"That means, until December???" Kagome nearly fainted from the news. She might've survived being with Inu-yasha for a week alone in the house without becoming a vegetable, but a whole six months, that was going to be way to hard.  
  
"You'll be fine together! I'm trusting you!"  
  
"BUT I DON'T TRUST THAT STUPID IDIOT!" Kagome and Inu-yasha pointed at each other, saying the sentence at the same time.  
  
"Oh," Mrs. Higurashi exclaimed as she checked her watch. "We have to get going now."  
  
"NOW???"  
  
"yes, well, we're trusting you, bye!" Mr. Higurashi grabbed his wife's arm and rushed over towards the door, jumping into their car and speeding off way over the speed limit towards the airport.  
  
Silence.  
  
The door wasn't closed.  
  
The wind was blowing in, causing it to creek.  
  
Inu-yasha and Kagome were still google-eyed.  
  
Suddenly. . .  
  
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" they both screamed, running around the house, banging into walls, hoping that it was all some sort of bad dream.  
  
From way afar, the sirens of police cars could be heard, wondering what was happening on the house on top of the hill.  
  
-_-_-_-_-  
  
AN: yeh, I had a mild form of writer's block while writing this. So sorry if it's not so great! ^^  
  
Anyway, please please please review!!! Reviews are cool! ^^  
  
Jyane  
  
Itadakimasu ^^!  
  
Liza w, who is incredibly scared that school is going to start in two days, and who is scared about entering high school in a new country and who wants the holidays to be extremely long and who wants. . .  
  
(What's wrong with me??? I'm writing part of my Christmas wish list here!) 


	3. pancakes And the start of Something sini...

AN: Because I am such a nice person, I have decided to update this fic earlier than the rest! ^^, thank you for the reviews. Please review again!! ^^  
  
-_-_-_-  
  
"Aww crap! It's the cops! Look what you've done, b*tch!" Inu-yasha screamed out at full power to Kagome.  
  
"What the heck are you talking about? I for one wasn't the one shouting out swear words at another person! I also didn't say the words "I'm gonna kill you!" Kagome retorted back, she was mad, she was angry, she was horrified as hell.  
  
A knock came on the door.  
  
"Is everything all right there?" asked the policeman.  
  
"Yes, of course!" Kagome frantically searched for a better answer but failed to find one.  
  
"What was all the commotion in there?" he asked again.  
  
"Umm." This time Kagome was stuck.  
  
"We have a, umm, goat! Yes, goat in the house and we wanted to eat, umm, dinner! Yes, goat stew. We wanted to eat goat stew for dinner! And we couldn't buy it because, umm, we're not supposed to do anything but eat and cook today! Family traditions and all." Inu-yasha knew how stupid his answer was, the cops would probably want to come in even more because of it.  
  
"Oh, I see! Goat stew, let me tell you, I love goat stew! The best part about it is the soup, now most people chuck it in the rubbish bin but I swear, it's the best part of it! You'd be missing a heck of a lot if you didn't drink THAT up!" With that the policeman hummed a song while swinging his gun around his finger, he jumped in his car and sped off into the distance.  
  
"I can't believe how stupid that lie was." Kagome said monotonously.  
  
"Well what I said just saved our frigging asses!"  
  
"It was too risky!"  
  
"Whatever, you're just mad that you aren't the one that could think up of useful things."  
  
"Hmph." Kagome fumed in anger and stomped up the stairs, forgetting that her ankle had actually been sprained. Everything had been a havoc over the past one hour that she didn't even bother about it.  
  
Kagome's legs went weak underneath her as she realized in vain that she was falling again down the stairs, this time, backwards. She braced herself, waiting for the impact of the hard floor; but nothing happened.  
  
"Are you OK?" Inu-yasha asked, his eyes hinting the slightest bit of concern.  
  
"Yes, I'm fine." Kagome brushed away from Inu-yasha, not forgetting to make him stumble a little from his steps. She hated this day so much! Good thing she made that bet with Sango though, if it really worked, then Inu-yasha would never even have the GUTS to bother her again.  
  
"The b*tch must be real mad." Inu-yasha muttered under his breath, rolling his amber eyes.  
  
-_-_-_-  
  
[the next morning]  
  
"Ahhh," Kagome yawned as she stretched in her bed, sitting up. She walked over sleepily towards the bathroom downstairs, rubbing her eyes that were still tired. Kagome tried to grab the handle of the door, but then noticed that it still needed to be repaired.  
  
"Stupid Inu-yasha, breaking the stupid door and all. . ." Kagome grumbled.  
  
She went over towards the wash basin, still oblivious of the figure that was right beside her.  
  
Inu-yasha heard something come in, what could it be? A rat, or maybe, a burglar? But that couldn't be possible, they didn't have rats in the house! And they locked up at night. . .so what could it be? He looked to his right, then to his left, and he couldn't believe his eyes. . .  
  
"B*TCH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Inu-yasha screamed out, covering himself.  
  
"What? Who is that, who are you? Oh my God! You must be a pervert! Get out! Or I'll call the cops! I swear to you! I can defend myself! I know karate!" Kagome still wasn't fully awake yet. Her blurry vision lingered on for a little while longer and she rubbed her eyes again, just to make sure that it was really Inu-yasha she was looking at.  
  
One blink.  
  
Two blinks.  
  
Three blinks.  
  
"I SWEAR! I DIDN'T KNOW YOU WERE HERE!" Kagome ran out of the bathroom, her hands flying over everywhere.  
  
"God, that b*tch ruins everything!"  
  
-_-_-_-  
  
Kagome went over to the kitchen, trying to search for edible food supplies there, usually Mrs. Higurashi was the one that cooked breakfast, if not, the maid. But she had gotten fired for stealing some of the jewelry and clothes that were in Kagome's room.  
  
"Oh! Here it is!" Kagome said excitedly, she had found the box for pancakes. There was enough mix in it for one person. "Good, there's still some for me." Kagome smiled, knowing that Inu-yasha would be so mad if he didn't get anything to eat.  
  
Kagome hummed as she flipped over the pancakes and placed them on a plate. She turned off the gas stove and walked on over towards the other half of the question to get some butter and maple syrup.  
  
Yup, the plain old way, Kagome thought, so simple yet so good.  
  
Kagome turned around and to her horror, she found that her pancakes were no longer there. She picked up the plate and threw it down at the floor, her anger quickly rising.  
  
"What the hell was that?" Inu-yasha asked her, his mouth still muffled with pancakes in it.  
  
"GOD I HATE YOU INU-YASHA! YOU'RE GONNA PAY!" Kagome punched him in the shoulders brutally, and ran up the stairs, tripping on a couple before she finally got to her room.  
  
"Damned foot. . ." she said as she hopped along.  
  
Inu-yasha was still speechless. "God, what's her problem? I just ate her food. . ."  
  
-_-_-_-  
  
[an hour later]  
  
The doorbell rung, and Kagome walked down the stairs wearing a short blue dress and high socks. She opened the door and invited her friends in. It had been quite a while before they had gone over to her house; whenever they had, Inu-yasha had always ruined it, but this time, Kagome was determined for things to run smoothly.  
  
"Ah, Konnichiwa, Kagome-chan! We're here as we promised." Sango and the others said to her, goofy smiles on their faces.  
  
Inu-yasha snorted at them, holding his head high amidst everything.  
  
Sango walked closely past him, whispering words in his ear.  
  
"I don't think you want what happened last year to happen again, do you?" she asked coldly while patting Inu-yasha's shoulder twice.  
  
"Feh!" Inu-yasha brushed invisible dirt off his shoulder, hoping he hadn't caught some disease or something.  
  
The 5 teenagers ran up to Kagome's room, giggling about some jokes as if nothing had happened back then, Kagome closed the door to her room, a loud blam could be heard.  
  
"Why always her?" Inu-yasha asked to himself, and unidentifiable emotion clearly etched on his face. "Why is it always her that's so lucky?" Inu- yasha closed his eyes and walked out of the door of his house. He needed to take a walk, to relax, maybe then, he wouldn't be so angry again for no reason at all.  
  
"Inu-yasha!" came Kagome's mocking voice from above, "Bring us some lemonade will you? You little, idiotic girl!" her friends giggled.  
  
"I can't believe you actually did that dare!" Miroku laughed out loud.  
  
"Yes, isn't my woman so brave?" Kouga put his arm around Kagome.  
  
Kagome brushed off his hand quickly, walking away from the group; usually Inu-yasha would just grumble, mumble and complain yet again about how "stupid" everyone was, but there was no response.  
  
"Inu-yasha?" Kagome asked more calmly this time.  
  
"Geez, I think he's out!"  
  
"Thank God for that!" Sango said, delighted.  
  
"By the way, Kagome-chan, have you done anything about the bet yet?" Miroku asked.  
  
"Of course not! I don't think it's possible though, I mean like, I just get sick by looking at the guy! How would you expect me to do something like that?" asked Kagome.  
  
"Remember, it's a done deal, Kagome-chan!" Sango winked at her.  
  
"Yeh, I want your car so bad. . ."  
  
"What?! You're giving away that lexus sports car if she wins it??!" Kouga asked, surprised.  
  
"Didn't you already know?"  
  
"Nah, I'm a little slow here.  
  
-_-_-_-_-  
  
[a couple of hours late]  
  
"See ya, Kagome-chan!" Kagome waved at Sango, the last person in the group to leave. She closed the door and sighed heavily. Everything was so quiet now, she could almost hear the air flow, but air didn't make a sound did it?  
  
I'm really not that used to silence, am I? Asked Kagome to herself, and where the heck could that idiotic Inu-yasha possible be.  
  
She walked around the room, expecting him to be home at any minute.  
  
Twelve hours passed by, he still wasn't home. It was one in the morning, Kagome was starting to get worried.  
  
It was dawn by now, and still no sign of the idiot.  
  
Maybe he got himself killed, Kagome thought, but I wanted to kill him myself! Her heart stammered a little, scared of what could have happened. No matter how much she hated Inu-yasha, she still didn't hate him enough for someone to murder him!  
  
Suddenly, the door blasted open and Inu-yasha came in, his breath full of alcohol.  
  
"What the hell were you doing?" Kagome asked.  
  
"What's it look like?" Inu-yasha was still dazed by everything, the room seemed to be spinning and there were a hundred Kagomes. He would truly rather live in hell if that ever happened.  
  
"You idiot! I was worried here!" Kagome screamed out.  
  
"Wha- -?" Before he was finished, his sentence got cut off.  
  
"I was sitting here, scared, that you'd have been hurt or near death or something! Or worse of all, murdered! No matter how much I hate you, I don't want you dead! And then you come home, drunk, of all things, still trying to argue with me!" Kagome's eyes blazed with fury, she was always the worry-wart in the family, every little thing that went wrong was large enough for her to ponder about for days.  
  
"I-I. . ."  
  
"Save it for later jerk!" Kagome pushed him away again and walked up the stairs, her eyes baggy from lack of sleep, but before she crashed in her room though, she noticed the sorrowful look from Inu-yasha's face; as if that was his true self.  
  
Then she smiled.  
  
"Step one, complete!" Kagome whispered.  
  
-_-_-_-  
  
AN: By now you guys probably know what the bet is ^^, you can guess it if you want! Please review! 


	4. new Vistor and a Flashback of things

AN: Thank you for the reviews! I'm so happy!! ^^, anyway, please review the next chapter ^^, oh yeh, since you all seem to want to know what the bet is, I've decided to put it here!  
  
-_-_-_-  
  
Kagome awoke to the morning sun in her face, her eyes still droopy from the lack of sleep she had gotten in the past day. She shielded her sensitive eyes from the light rays and quickly changed into a pair of shorts and a T- shirt.  
  
I wonder, Kagome thought, is he still going to be a total jerk or has a little something changed?  
  
Kagome decided to go see for herself, she hopped down the stairs, looking around the room for a glimpse of Inu-yasha. When she didn't find him, she decided to go to the kitchen in search for food.  
  
"Ah, I'm so hungry! I wish mom and dad were here, then I wouldn't have to cook on my own!" Kagome entered the kitchen, smelling something that was slightly burning. "Eh, what's that? Did I forget to turn of the stove again?!" Kagome ran over to the oven, bumping into something on the way, she fell down on her knees while rubbing her forehead.  
  
"Watch out!" Inu-yasha screamed.  
  
"What the. . .? You're awake?" Kagome asked in surprise.  
  
"Of course."  
  
"What the heck are you doing?"  
  
"I'm cooking of course!" Inu-yasha's face was nearly black because of the minor explosions that had been forming in the kitchen. Debris fell off of him, he looked like a mess.  
  
"OK, well just clean up the kitchen, I still need my breakfast."  
  
"But that is yours." Inu-yasha said, pointing towards the big blob of green slime mixed in with unknown black charred things on the table.  
  
Kagome fell down in cold sweat again.  
  
"What? I think it tastes good." Inu-yasha gobbled up the green thing, not forgetting to lick his fingers clean.  
  
Kagome just gulped.  
  
"Umm, I guess, thank you?" Even though it turned out to be a disaster, Kagome was still glad that Inu-yasha was finally beginning to think of other people than himself. She had never expected him to even cook, nonetheless try and make /her/ breakfast.  
  
"Feh!" Inu-yasha retaliated.  
  
Kagome muffled a grin and skipped out of the kitchen.  
  
-_-_-_-  
  
By an hour's time, Inu-yasha started cleaning up the kitchen, his hair still standing on his head because it was still unbrushed since the morning. He grabbed a cleaning cloth and wiped up the floor, but after three scrubs, he stil couldn't see the bottom of it.  
  
"Inu-yasha, here, I'll show you how to do it." Kagome said, grabbing a cleaning cloth of her own, she poured some creamy liquid on it and started to clean up the floor, exposing part of it one by one. The whiteness of the tiles was finally coming back.  
  
Inu-yasha looked down at her, his gaze softening a little, he stayed there for a minute or two, staring a little at the girl that was so absorbed in her work, a small bit of mixed emotion coming up in his head. He quickly shook his head. What the heck am I doing? He asked himself horridly, what was wrong with him today?  
  
"Feh! Just do it on your own!" Inu-yasha quickly turned around and muttered a few curses under his breath.  
  
"What, Inu-yasha!" Kagome growled, "Jerk."  
  
-_-_-_-  
  
Kagome finally got around to cleaning up the whole kitchen, she threw the cloth in the rubbish bin, it was getting old anyway. She sighed and thought about the course of the day, maybe things were going to turn out OK after all, Inu-yasha hadn't even called her "bitch" today. She looked up to the sky and found herself regretting that she had made the bet with Sango, even though for a while, even though he didn't show it, Inu-yasha was trying to be nice. So what would happen if she did win it, and then she had to finish it off? That was just cruel. She couldn't do that. Never. Kagome thought for a while to call up Sango and say that it's off, before someone really would get hurt, but stopped in the middle of things when she remembered that Sango would give her the car.  
  
How stupid, Kagome thought, I'm so idiotic. So a car is worth more to me than Inu-yasha? Kagome smirked at the thought but it immediately turned into a frown when she realized that it was true. She hated how she felt, but somehow, deep inside her heart, she knew that this was her true self.  
  
I used to think I was so nice, Kagome thought, well look at me now.  
  
[{flashback}]  
  
Sango whispered in her ear.  
  
"I bet you, you can't make him of all people, fall in love with you."  
  
"Who?" Kagome asked curiously.  
  
"Inu-yasha."  
  
She gasped at the mention of his name.  
  
"But I'm not finished yet Kagome-chan."  
  
"What's next?"  
  
"When he finally says those words to you. . ."  
  
"Yeh?"  
  
"I want you to laugh at his face. . ."  
  
[{end of flashback}]  
  
A sad smile played on Kagome's lips as her eyes drooped slightly, still sleepy from everything. Her eyes were getting a bit glassy, tears slightly forming from the horror at discovering her own feelings. She wiped them away, rubbing them with her dirty hands.  
  
Inu-yasha came down the stairs, looking inside the kitchen. To his total surprise, it was so clean. He peeked inside and saw Kagome.  
  
"YOU!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"You look like a panda!" Inu-yasha said, laughing while pointing.  
  
"Whady'a mean?"  
  
"Look! That black thing on your face!" Inu-yasha clutched his stomach.  
  
Kagome looked to the shiny metal that was on the stove, and she laughed at her own reflection.  
  
So I can finally laugh with him, Kagome thought, so why am I not plotting to ruin his life right now?  
  
-_-_-_-  
  
The doorbell to the house rang, and Kagome looked at her watch, wasn't it too early for Sango and the others to come? Kagome splashed water on her face and wiped it on a nearby cloth, the doorbell rang again.  
  
"I'm coming!" she cried out, hoping the person outside would hear her.  
  
Kagome opened the door up and sure enough, it wasn't her friends outside.  
  
"Kitsara-basan?" Kagome asked, surprised to see that her mother's friend was here.  
  
"KITSARA-SAN!" If there was one thing that Kitsara hated, it was to be regarded as an old woman  
  
"Eh-heh." Kagome stifled a laugh, it was always so funny when Kitsara did that.  
  
"Kagome, can I ask you a favor?" The woman asked.  
  
"Sure!"  
  
"Thanks. Well, I'll be gone for around a month, so. . ." she brought out her son that was clutching her jeans from behind her. His eyes looked so scared, almost pleading.  
  
"Aww, so cute!" Kagome squealed in delight.  
  
"Thank you! Well, Kagome, can I ask you to take care of him for a month? There's nobody else that can! They're all on holiday." Kitsara said, rubbing her head a little while sweating a little.  
  
"Umm, I have to ask. . ." Kagome got cut off.  
  
"Oh my, kagome-chan! Thank you so much, I have to leave now!" Kitsara sped off from the house, running away from her son and Kagome.  
  
"But-. . ." Kagome failed to get her back.  
  
She was going to have to think up of a heck of an explanation for Inu- yasha.  
  
-_-_-_-  
  
AN: I am so sorry that this chapter is disappointing! School kind of depressed me and suddenly I just didn't have any ideas! I'm also sorry that it's not long either! Please forgive me! Review and if you can, give me some ideas please ^^  
  
P.S: Congratulations to the people that guessed what the bet was right! ^^ 


	5. leaving And a phone Call that will chang...

AN: OMG! I actually broke 100 reviews! *glomps all her readers* Thank you so much! ^_______^ *grins* please review this chapter too! ^^. Hmm, this chapter is sort of long because the other one was short ^____^  
  
-_-_-_-  
  
The little boy put his small hands into Kagome's, he stared off at his mother that sped away from the house and started to cry. He didn't know what to do, everything was way too rushed, nothing seemed to make sense. Kagome bent down towards him and looked into the child's soft brown eyes; she pulled him in a hug, surprising him, but in all, managing to make the kid feel better.  
  
"What's your name?" Kagome asked kindly, a smile on her face.  
  
"S-Shipou. . ." he said shyly. During his school days, he normally got teased because of he stuttered. It was a life-time thing, the speech doctor said, unless he managed to cure his fear of people. At least he hadn't developed any kind of phobia. . .at least not yet.  
  
"Come on! I'll show you upstairs, looks like you're going to be staying here for some time now!" Kagome nodded at the little boy and patted him on the head, making him smile and even manage to laugh a little. She could tell he was shy, and that he was afraid; but she hoped that it would all go away in due time.  
  
"OK, Shippou, you stay here for a while," Kagome pointed to her room and moved Shippou over to her bed. "First of all, you lock the door from the inside, and when I knock and say the word, Kagome, you open it, OK?" Kagome asked the boy, she was afraid that when she told Inu-yasha, he would barge into her room and beat the hell out of the little kid.  
  
"But why?" Shippou asked, his eyes wide open.  
  
"Because, umm, it's hard to explain, I'll tell you later, deal?" Kagome asked the little boy and saw him nodding his head, "Yosh!"  
  
Shippou closed the door and Kagome heard a little click from inside the room, signaling that he had done as she said.  
  
Kagome crept over towards Inu-yasha's room. The walk towards death.  
  
-_-_-_-  
  
It was one hour later, Kagome stood stiff outside Inu-yasha's room, clenching her teeth together, her skin had lost all of its color.  
  
Suddenly, the door bursted open.  
  
"AHHHHH!!!" Kagome screamed, slapping the person that just went out of the room over and over again.  
  
"OI! What the hell is wrong with you?!" Inu-yasha asked, infuriated at Kagome, so she was a girl, but her punches hurt like hell.  
  
"Umm, Inu-yasha, umm, I have umm, something to tell you."  
  
Inu-yasha lifted his head, interested suddenly. He looked around nervously.  
  
"Umm, it's important," Kagome fumbled with the words, her fingers started to get a tingling feeling within them.  
  
"I know! What the hell is it?"  
  
"There's a kid that's going to be staying with us for a month or more." Kagome gulped.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Kitsara-san's kid, she dropped him off here, and now he's staying with us for a while."  
  
"No way!"  
  
"Please, Inu-yasha? He has no-where to stay!" Kagome pleaded to Inu-yasha, hanging onto his shirt before he started to run away from her.  
  
"Get your hands off me!" Inu-yasha brushed off Kagome's hands violently, he hmphed and started to march down the stairs.  
  
"Inu-yasha! Think about it!" Kagome screamed out. She reached out towards Inu-yasha frantically.  
  
"WHY THE HELL SHOULD I? I've been having a bad day and everything you say makes me so mad that I just want to kill somebody! So stop talking! God! And add a kid to the problem? That would be like living with two of you! It's the end of the world, that's what it is. By just looking at you I want to vomit like hell! Living with you I want to die, plus living with a kid that's just too much to handle!" Inu-yasha smirked at his response, clearly knowing that it had gotten to Kagome's nerves.  
  
"Fine then." Kagome whispered softly.  
  
"What?" He wasn't sure if he heard right, Kagome never agreed with him, never.  
  
"FINE, then, Inu-yasha," Kagome said coldly, "I'm out of here."  
  
"What do you mean?!" Was she running away from home?!  
  
"I'm OUT of here! As in never coming back, and I'm going to bring the kid with me. That way, you won't have the trouble of living with a girl that makes you want to throw up at the sight of her face! And you won't have to take care of an annoying kid! Are you happy now Inu-yasha?!" Kagome raced up the stairs, knocking on Shippou's door. The little kid came out and she lifted him up on her back.  
  
"Shippou? We're leaving."  
  
"Why, Onechan?"  
  
"Just call me Kagome." Kagome grimaced a little. "And we're leaving because I want us to leave." She smiled angrily.  
  
"OI!" Inu-yasha screamed out to her, had he finally taken the last step to driving her out? He had lived with her ever since they were kids, everyday, seeing her face. Seeing her laugh, seeing her mad. He knew that he hated her, that was for certain. But what would he feel if he would never meet her again?  
  
Loneliness?  
  
That wasn't the right answer, it was to simple to explain things.  
  
Depression?  
  
No. . .  
  
Emptiness?  
  
Maybe. . .  
  
"OI! Listen to me!!" Inu-yasha chased after Kagome, a mixture of thoughts forming inside his head. What the hell am I doing? He thought, am I actually asking her to come back? Inu-yasha widened his eyes in realization of that simple truth. . .  
  
"Why should I? Wouldn't you like life without me? And without this kid that you don't even know?" Kagome spun around, cloudy mists forming in her eyes.  
  
"Umm. . ."  
  
"See? Even now, you're still deciding! Well let me tell you back, I don't need to stay here! I don't need to depend on people anymore!"  
  
Inu-yasha lowered his gaze and closed his eyes. There was still a matter of pride, his stupid pride that got in the way of everything. . .he wouldn't just ask her to come back. . .that just wasn't right, at least not to him.  
  
"Where are you going to stay?"  
  
"At Sango-chan's" Kagome hmphed in triumph and continued to walk to the door.  
  
"See? You're still depending on someone. . ."  
  
No response.  
  
"What are you going to do if she says no?"  
  
"She won't."  
  
"What if suddenly she has to move houses? And you have nowhere to go?" Inu- yasha asked softly.  
  
"Then I'll live underneath a bridge."  
  
Inu-yasha chuckled underneath his breath.  
  
"You can't live like that. I know it. I can imagine it, living in a cardboard box, and I know you'll steal food from the grocery. Like when you were three. . .stealing that lollipop from the store because I stole your original one from you. . ."  
  
Kagome's eyes softened a little at the mention of the childhood.  
  
"And you'll have a keychain, even if you didn't have a lock, just for the sake of it. . ."  
  
"And I'll drink water from sewage because I don't have money to buy any. . ."  
  
"You won't even go to school, you'll stay there the whole day. . ."  
  
"Telling stories to Shippou. . ."  
  
"And dreaming up thoughts. . ."  
  
"Of what my life would be like years later. . ."  
  
"Yeh. . ."  
  
" . .Well I should go now. . .build my cardboard box, find my bridge. . ."  
  
"Stay."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because. . ."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Because I don't want to. . ." Inu-yasha sighed, "Because I don't want to live alone. . ."  
  
Kagome smiled, tears streaming on her face, she put Shippou down on the floor and hugged the little boy.  
  
"Thank you, Inu-yasha."  
  
"Yeh. . ."  
  
"I mean it, I really do this time."  
  
-_-_-_-_-  
  
It had been three days since Shippou had resided with Inu-yasha and Kagome, of course, those two always got into fights with each other, they were having one now.  
  
"You should respect Kagome!" Shippou screamed out, hitting Inu-yasha.  
  
"Feh! Why should I?" Inu-yasha picked up Shippou by the back and gave him a murderous glare.  
  
"Because she does everything around here! The housework, cooking, cleaning!"  
  
"I can do that myself!" Inu-yasha growled.  
  
"Oh, like last week when you made your clothes all pink and green because you put in your smiley-faced boxers with your white shirts?" Shipou mocked him.  
  
"Hey! Those smiley-faced boxers were special!"  
  
"Now they don't even HAVE faces!" Shippou stuck his tongue out and bit Inu- yasha's arm, he ran towards Kagome and hid behind her.  
  
"FEH!" Inu-yasha shook his hand, that kid had a strong bite, his teeth nearly pierced his skin. He could've been a vampire in the past life or something.  
  
"Inu-yasha," Kagome came up from behind him.  
  
"Don't you dare be violent to Shippou."  
  
Shippou welled up fake tears in his eyes as he laughed silently at Inu- yasha.  
  
"But. . ."  
  
"There are no exceptions. This is your last warning." Kagome walked down the stairs.  
  
Inu-yasha shivered.  
  
-_-_-_-  
  
Kagome hummed a tune as she heard the phone ringing, she dropped her mop and picked the receiver up.  
  
"Moshi moshi." She said.  
  
"Moshi moshi, Kagome-chan!" a crackling voice said on the other line.  
  
"Higurashi-san!"  
  
"Kagome, I'm going to get straight to the point." The voice turned gravely dark.  
  
"What is it?" Kagome asked, curious.  
  
"There's bad news." Mrs. Higurashi sighed, "We met your birth parents. . ."  
  
"Really?" Kagome asked, surprised, she hadn't shown any interest over the years to her birth parents, maybe it was because she felt so much at home with the Higurashis. But generally, she just wasn't curious enough to ponder about the matter.  
  
"Yeh, and when you were a baby," Mrs. Higurashi's voice cracked a bit, "we signed something on the adoption form. . ."  
  
Kagome was too focused to ask questions.  
  
". . .That if your birth parents ever wanted you back. . ."  
  
Silence.  
  
". . .We would be forced to give you up to them. . ."  
  
"And?" Kagome feared the worst, a bad feeling started forming in her stomach.  
  
"They want you back. . .Kagome, they want you back. . ."  
  
Thos words lingered in her mind for an eternity.  
  
-_-_-_-  
  
AN: Well, I know it was rushed, but hey! I tried. . .ne?? ^___________^ thank you again for all the reviews, and please review again! 


	6. go Fish cards and a Month left of everyt...

AN: Bwahahaha, thank you for the reviews! Please review this chapter too ^^

-_-_-_-

Shippou looked at Inu-yasha strangely while he was munching his lollipop. His eyes bulged slightly. 

"What, you idiot kid?" Inu-yasha asked gruffly. 

"How many licks does it take to get to the center of this lollipop?" Shippou questioned, clearly interested in what he was asking. 

"I don't know!" Inu-yasha screamed out. 

"Because you're too dumb?" the kid had an angelic look on his face, almost as if he wanted to make Inu-yasha angry. 

"I swear to you, I will kill you!" Inu-yasha picked up Shippou by his head, but he was just a second to slow, the kid slid down and he got hold of his shorts. 

"OW!" Shippou frantically tried waving his arms around to get out of Inu-yasha's grasp. 

"Keh!" Inu-yasha smirked. 

"You're giving me a wedgie Inu-yasha!" 

"Eh?" 

Inu-yasha looked down and saw what his hand was holding, he screamed like a girl and dropped the kid on the cold, tiled floor. 

"Don't you dare do that again!" 

"My hand's contaminated with that thing I just touched!" Inu-yasha ran around the room, blowing on his hand, shaking it loosely in the air as if he had cooties. 

"Honestly, you're more immature than me..." Shippou was now munching on a chocolate bar. 

"Is that what I think it is?!" Inu-yasha's eyes glinted evilly, he reached out his arm and grabbed the little kid's candy. 

"Hey! You're not supposed to steal from kid's!" Shippou tried defending himself. 

"Then just think that you're an old lady." 

Inu-yasha munched on the bar.

-_-_-_-

 "But why?" Kagome asked Mrs. Higurashi, tears falling down her pale, rosy red cheeks. Her hair was matted and she possessed no strength to stand up anymore. All her energy was drained away by those few words that were muttered just minutes ago. 

"Kagome I can't argue with the law…" Mrs.  Higurashi said on the other line, biting back the tears that were forming in her eyes. She hardly ever cried, she was a strong woman, a _very strong woman, even her husband had never seen her cry; but now here she was, about to break down and fall because her one and only little girl was about to go away. _

"I don't want to leave…" _I shouldn't make this even harder than it is, Kagome thought, __But__ I can't keep everything inside me! I'd go crazy… "When do I have to go?" She asked, defeated by the moment, she couldn't stand arguing with Higurashi-san for something that would never change. It was useless to do anything like that. _

"…In a month…" Mrs. Higurashi said on the other side, the line crackled a little, creating small static waves that were intercepted in between the syllables of the words. 

"I…I can't deal with this right now…" Kagome was about to literally break down, there was no way she would be able to stand talking about the matter, just thinking about it was horrendous enough. 

"I know…" 

"I-Call me later…" Kagome didn't wait for an answer and put down the receiver into the phone, she sighed and pushed her back on the wall, rubbing her temples with her fingers. She was getting a head ache from all this. She bent down and sat on the floor, hugging her knees while burying her head inside of them. Valleys of tears came running down her eyes and she tried crying out loud, but her voice was already lost in the memories of the conversation. 

_What am I going to do? Kagome asked herself, not knowing the answer herself. She grimaced and smirked sadly, __I'm still asking rhetorical questions even now…_

The girl stood up slowly, her legs still shaking from the emotional impact that had been blasted onto her. She wished it was all a dream, a bad dream, or a joke that later, she would laugh at when she really understood it. But deep inside, she knew that it was going to happen, you didn't live life as a dream unless you were a spectator, watching from the outside not bothering to work on anything from the inside. 

_Just when I was going to enjoy it here too, Kagome thought to herself. She wiped away the few remaining tears and clenched her fist in determination, __I'm not going to let this break me; no matter how hard it's going to be, I have to be strong for every body; because what matters most is not the situation I'm in, but the emotions that I want to feel. I'll survive through this!_

**_Don't make goals for yourself that you can't even match…_**

The thought left her head quickly, but she couldn't stop pondering about it.

-_-_-_-

Sango thwacked Miorku on the head slightly, distracting her from driving. She crashed into the traffic light and went through it, bumping into someone's car. 

"Hey! Ass hole!" She cried out, lifting her middle finger, "Watch where you're driving! You just wrecked my car!" 

Everyone sweat-dropped. 

"I think it's you that hit him…" Kouga said to Sango, tapping her shoulder slightly. 

"Hey! You, shut up! You're supposed to _defend me! I know I hit the idiot but I've got to make me look good!" _

"She is right in a way." Sesshoumaru's eyes were wrapped up in immense thoughts, something very unlikely for the former president of the "I can't think or else my head will blow" club. 

"Do you think we should get out of here?" Miroku asked impatiently. 

"Yeh, I think that guy is calling the cops." Sango replied. 

"COOL! The cops?!" Kouga popped out from behind. 

"You gag him, I kill him." 

-_-_-_-

"Do you have…umm, Barney?" Inu-yasha asked the kid, both holding "Go-Fish" cards. 

"You want Barney of all things?" Shippou widened his eyes. 

"Well it's better than getting that other green and yellow dinosaur!" Inu-yasha fumed, "These stupid cards of yours! I told you, buy the tellytubby go-fish cards! Not the Barney! But no, you won't listen to me!" 

"Stupid big kid, what's wrong with you, huh?" Shippou asked, challenging Inu-yasha to a fight, he lifted his fists in the air, a murderous look covering his face. 

"You, sit back down." Inu-yasha said as he popped Shippou back into the baby seat. 

-_-_-_-

"Inu-yasha…" Kagome whispered hoarsely while putting her trembling hands on his shoulder. She looked pale, unhealthy, stressed even. 

Inu-yasha froze underneath her grip, Kagome never talked like this unless she was really upset, normally she would either be hitting him or making sarcastic jokes. 

"What is it?" he asked as he stepped out of his chair, walking towards the large living room. 

"There's something really important that I have to tell you." Kagome said. "And you can't laugh because of it." 

"Spit it out." 

"It'll only make you happier, but what the heck?" she fiddled with the thumbs on her hands slowly, making little circles in the air, a sign of anxiousness, "I have to leave." 

"Then leave! When will you be back?" 

"Never." 

"What do you mean, never?" he asked, confused. 

"I'm meaning that I have to go away…forever Inu-yasha." 

_Forever_

Inu-yasha suddenly found himself without words for a while, something amazingly rare for a guy such as he. "Forever", it seemed so, fantasy-like for some reason, in-human, un-worldly. Was it really true? He couldn't begin to comprehend all of the complexities that existed within the matter, just a few hours ago he had managed to make her stay, and now, she was leaving again? That just wasn't right, not right at all…Why did she have to leave? Of all people….

"Inu-yasha?" Kagome asked, biting back the emotional outbreak she was about to throw again. _He was probably laughing on the inside, grinning to himself because I'm going to leave, Kagome though cynically. She hated that word, it was so insulting towards the people that it was talking about; but in a way, reality had made it true…In itself, life was a series of cynical incidents that overlapped each other…The irony of it was too great to explain. _

"When are you going away?" Inu-yasha tried not to shake her shoulders and demand of her all the details of the matter, she looked way too fragile for that to be done. 

"In a month…" she didn't need to be pressed anymore. Inu-yasha was probably jumping up and down right now, smirking at her saying "I told you that you weren't and would never be a part of us." 

Suddenly, he grinned, answering Kagome's worst fears.

Her face lit up at what he said next. 

"Then let's make this the best month that you've ever had in your life!"

**AN: Well, isn't this a weird chapter? I'm so sorry that it's not as good as you'd like it to be!!!! Wahh!! I tried, it's true! But really, I'll make the next chapter better, I swear! Please review ^^**


	7. ferris Wheel and a Revelation

            AN: first of all, I'm sooo sorry I haven't gotten this out earlier. Second of all, this chapter is dedicated to **demon-heiress and ****Naatz-neechan**** (Netta-neechan)! Thanks you two ^____^ you're the people that build my muse ^__^. Oh and umm, don't kill me, but do you mind if I don't have so much humor anymore?? Please review! ^^**

-_-_-_-

(Inuyasha's POV)

_            Why am I helping her so much? I can't understand it, I used to hate her, actually, I still do; but there's just something that's different in the air, something I can't understand. Argh! I just wish so much that it was back to normal, it felt kind of good to tease her and make fun of her, but now, whenever I do it I just feel so empty. Am I so alone that I need to pick on another so that my ego could boost up?! _

_            Feh…that's not who I am, is it? I don't know who I am, I don't know what I want, I don't know what to do…_

_            That Shippo kid, the one that just came in, I don't even know who he is and he's been living with us, with **me for the past couple of days. I wouldn't have done that, would I, if it was a couple of years ago? **_

_            Why is she leaving? I don't think she has any reason to…when she talked to me about it just hours ago, it seemed so idiotic. Having to leave because of the government? Federal policies? What the hell is all that?! I don't care if she breaks the damned rules and everything, isn't it supposed to be her choice?!_

_            There I go again, another so called emotional outbreak, I want to hurt somebody, I want to hurt somebody real bad so that I can take away my anger…_

_            …_

-_-_-_-

            Kagome strode away from the center of the living room, brushing her long hair with her fingers. She paced around slightly and bit her lip, wondering what she had forgotten. Suddenly, it clicked in her head. "Gotta make dinner for Shippou and Inu-yasha! What should I make? And…how will I say to Shippou about the news?" Kagome decided to ignore that part of her thoughts and continued on consulting her recipe books for different kinds of food. 

            "I don't know what to choose, I'll just ask Inu-yasha then since Shippou's sleeping right now." Kagome walked up the stairs, throwing her apron over the railing as she tied her hair up in a bun. 

            "Inu-yasha?" Kagome asked, knocking on the door of his room quietly with her hand on the door knob. 

            "What?" Inu-yasha asked with a growl in his voice, he threw a dart onto the dart board above his bed with a badly drawn picture of Shippou on it. 

            "I'm just asking what you want for dinner." 

            Inu-yasha stumbled for a moment, "Whatever, I don't give a damn, _wench, ask that kid or something, it's not like I even care! Besides, your cooking sucks like hell." _

            "Idiot." Kagome snarled as she karate-kicked the white door, causing a slight vibration in the earth. "I hate you!" She screamed out, not even bothering to look back at Inu-yasha, who had mysteriously popped out of his room.

-_-_-_-

{Inu-yasha's POV}

            _I didn't mean it that way, really, I didn't. I didn't want to hurt her like that or make her angry, but I didn't want to show her what I felt inside. Jesus, I'm in a mess, if you took one glance at me, you wouldn't know it, but if some idiot suddenly found a mental detector test or something like that, then you'd see the difference. _

_            A lot of people ask me what's wrong with me or why I act like I do, but even I don't know. I mean, just look at what I've done now with her…_

-_-_-_-

            Kagome planted her feet firmly onto the ground, emphasizing on each step that she made. She traced the surface of the walls with her long fingernails as her mouth seethed into a trace of demonic stance. 

            "God, he was acting so nice just a minute ago and now he's turned back into his usual corny self. Maybe it's a good thing that I'm leaving! Really, then I won't have to see Inu-yasha's face again!" 

            _"Come back…because I don't want to be alone…"_

            Kagome stopped in mid-track when she remembered what he had told her. "Loneliness?" she asked herself, taking no notice to the world that was revolving around her, "As if I care!" she sputtered out. 

            "Kagome, what are you talking about?" a sleepy voice asked from behind her, the holder of it was wiping his eyes gently with a small paw-like hand. Kagome gasped in surprise when she saw that it was Shippou. 

            "Ah, Shippou, nothing, nothing at all! Come here!" Kagome said while scooping the child up into her arms, she held him for a moment and pulled him away, still dangling him in the air, "What do you want to eat for dinner?" 

            Shippou's eyes sparkles in the light, "Really? I can choose?" 

            "Yup!" Kagome said while nodding. 

            "Mommy never let me choose! I want macaroni and cheese!" he jumped away from her grasp and hopped down the stairs while humming a tune from his favorite TV show. Shippou sat quietly in the living room and started to play a game of cards with himself. 

            "Am I going to be able to tell him too?" Kagome asked to herself with a sad look on her face. 

-_-_-_-

            "inu-yasha! Come down…" Kagome screamed out while stirring the macaroni and cheese in the pot, she held the stirring stick gently and the timer ticked in the background; finally, it was cooked now. She poured the mixture into a glass bowl and placed it onto the dining table, making a slight clinking sound in the process. "When is he coming dow-..?" 

            Kagome was interrupted by the soft sound of steps inside the kitchen, her head immediately snapped around in annoyance and her face fell to an utter dismay when she realized that Inu-yasha had come down. "I almost wished that I could've gone up there and pounded him to go downstairs…" she muttered to herself. 

            "Macaroni and cheese?!" Inu-yasha asked in a terrified voice. He glanced at the food lying on the table and sneered his nose up. He wasn't going to eat something like _that._

            "Oh yeh, I forgot, you hate mac and cheese…" Kagome sighed with her hands on her hips, she tapped her foot impatiently and rolled her eyes while brushing back her hair away from her face. 

            "Make something else, wench." Inu-yasha ordered. 

            "What the…?" Kagome asked in annoyance, "I am NOT going to make something else just so YOU can get to eat what you want, OK? I'm tired and I'm angry and I'm depressed so one more word out of you and I'm going to kill you! God, you just make me so sick! I was stupid to think that you were going to be all nice with, 'let's make this the best month of your life', what waste of time telling you everything! I should've just gone away that instance an-…" 

            Kagome watched in wonder as Inu-yasha garbled down the macaroni with a frown on his face. She smiled a little and small beads of tears formed in her eyes while she wiped them away. 

            "What?" Inu-yasha asked while trying not to barf. 

            "Nothing, just, thank you…"

            Kagome sat down on the dining chair and put her arms onto the table while she buried her head inside them. She stared at the long mahogany table while drawing small, intricate circles on it. Her lively blue eyes shifted into an unusual glance of tiredness inside them that seemed to bring down the atmosphere of the whole scene. 

            "What is it?" Inu-yasha finally said after a brief pause between the two of them. 

            "Nothing! Nothing at all!" Kagome smiled at him and skipped away from the dining room, living a confused Inu-yasha behind. 

            "She should just let it all out instead of pretending so much…" he said to the air, while pushing his chair back into its place, ready to leave the room. Suddenly, Shippou had come and walked inside completely out of Inu-yasha knowledge. He tripped over the kid, causing a catastrophe of broken plates and glasses on the floor from the impact. 

            "Aw crap…" Inu-yasha scratched his head slightly and lifted his brow. 

            "What is it?!" He could hear Kagome's concerned voice from upstairs as he tried to make up a passable excuse for the loud sound. 

            "Umm, uhh…" 

            "Inu-yasha rammed into the wall and bumped his head multiple times." Shippou screamed out, saving the older boy from the trouble of lying. 

            "Oh, OK, be careful next time. I'm going to watch TV upstairs so if you need me just call. Tell me when you're done eating too so I can wash the dishes!" 

            "Kid." Inu-yasha poked Shippou in the ribs, causing him to jump up in the air one meter high, "I've got an idea." 

-_-_-_-

            Kagome yawned as she stretched out on the couch, shielding her eyes from the morning sunlight. 

            "Aw no! it's morning already! I haven't done all the dish-washing and everything! And the laundry too…" She quickly ran downstairs, not bothering to wash her face or brush her hair as she got a glimpse of the alarm clock. "No! It's the afternoon already! And I haven't cooked breakfast and lunch too…" 

            She entered the kitchen and whipped out four pieces of toast quickly while getting out the knives and other utensils. 

            "Shippou doesn't like the crusts so I have to cut them and inu-yasha likes his bread in circles so.." 

            "What are you doing?" Inu-yasha asked her from behind, tapping her on her shoulder, she huffed in surprise and gawked for a second. 

            "I haven't cooked breakfast yet or anything for you guys and –…" 

            "But we've eaten already." 

            "Eh?!" 

            "Yeh, I made breakfast." 

            "But…"

            "What, so you think we're all helpless little prisses and everything?" 

            "No."

            "Oh, and by the way," Inu-yasha said while going out of the kitchen, "We did the laundry and dishes for you too." 

-_-_-_-

            A week passed by quickly and soon the summer fair was up and ready to be seen. Kagome desperately wanted to go but none of her friends were interested in viewing it. They either said it was all boring or stupid or even both of them. So she decided to go with Inu-yasha. Unfortunately, they all had to dress up to go to it. After hours of debate, Inu-yasha was finally forced to wear a potato costume. 

            "Come on, it isn't _that bad!" Kagome whined at him while tugging his arm a little. _

            "Oh, it _is that bad!"_

            "No-one's gonna notice you anyway, I mean, they'd all be dressed up in their own little…"

            Kagome sweat-dropped when she realized the sign saying "you no longer need to wear a costume to get in". 

            "Whoops." 

            "I told you." 

            "Well I'm dressed in costume too!"

            "You're not a potato." 

            Kagome snickered a little at what he said and continued on walking down the green fields. 

            "Oh my God! Look! There's a ferris wheel!" Kagome pointed out in joy as she noticed the small, run-down "wheel" that occupied a large plot of land. 

            She watched as Inu-yasha rolled his eyes and muttered a curse underneath his breath. Kagome glowered slightly and pouted her lip. 

            "Please-please-please-please-please!" Kagome whined like a little girl and dragged Inu-yasha against his will. 

            "fine fine, just shut up!" 

            "A-ri-ga-tou!" 

            A few minutes later, they had climbed onto the ferris wheel seats and comfortably seated themselves. Kagome looked frantically about them as she saw them go up into the air, suddenly, a shake of uncontrollable fear had elapsed her mind and she started to shiver in a dazed expression. 

            "Oi! Don't look so scared.." Inu-yasha commanded, but Kagome heard nothing at all. 

            "But—but…" 

            "It's all right…" 

Inu-yasha slowly put his arm around her small, shaking form and drew her in closer while looking out of the ferris window, breathing in the lingering scent of her hair slightly.

            _What's he doing? Kagome thought as questions of anticipation formed inside her mind, she leaned against Inu-yasha's arm slightly, planning to push it away from her shoulders, yet the heavy weight of it would not budge. She looked up to Inu-yasha and studied the contents of his face carefully, to her surprise, he had already fallen asleep. __Figures, he's been like this ever since we were kids! Kagome could still remember the times when Inu-yasha used to tease her endlessly about her fear of heights and then one minute later he would fall asleep on the ground, snoring out loud while mumbling some words that came out of his dreams. He used to drool on the carpet too! __I'm going to miss all of this so much! A tear fell to Kagome's cheek, but she herself was not aware of it. Inu-yasha gently stirred beside her and she wiped her tears away, a small, silent sob escaping from her retched lungs. _

            "What's wrong?" Inu-yasha asked her, concern etched onto his brow. 

            "Nothing, nothing at all." 

            Inu-yasha stared at her again, his amber eyes boring into her soft blue ones, he slowly tilted his head to whisper something in her ear. 

            "If you ever need me…you know I'm here…Just remember it…"

            "Th--.."

            "…you can – trust…me you know?

            Kagome blushed slightly at the comment, emancipating a few tingles of excitement to form inside her body. She gingerly pushed herself away from Inu-yasha death grasp on her arms and sighed inwardly, only to find that he gripped onto her ever more strongly. 

            "…don't go away yet…" his voice lingered in the air, filled with the slight apprehension of pain inside of it. 

            Kagome looked down guiltily and pushed her head to rest on Inu-yasha's shoulder while she strainfully closed her eyes and tried to enjoy the ride…

            _Kagome, you really shouldn't be doing this you know? A voice perpetrated her skull, its amused and childish tone sent waves of invisible perspiration to come steaming down her spine. She detested it when a sudden pollution of conscience suddenly engulfed her mind like this; it made her feel so __in-human, so__ dirty, as if she were some kind of mental criminal that robbed people of their lives. _

            She watched in vain as she saw the innocent look on Inu-yasha's face, he looked so _lost, like a little puppy that was dumped on in the street. _

            _Still like a child…she thought, snuggling in even closer._

-_-_-_-

AN: Well, didn't that just end greatly? Whoopsees, sorry about this chapter!!! You ask: When will there be fluff? I answer: I don't know! Muahahaha, *sweatdrops* and again, I'm sorry for the chapter, I swear, the next one will have more plot to it then this one! Please review ^__^

            __


	8. change Of ideals

AN: My literary dead brain has just had a revival…and I'm really, really sorry for everything. I know I was supposed to hand this story over and everything, so to those people I've disappointed, I'm very, very sorry about that…

-_-_-_-

So sometimes life doesn't really turn out the way you want it to; certainly not for Inu-yasha, who found himself in quite a dilemma that night thinking about a certain someone that wasn't supposed to even be meaningful in his life. His fumbling awkwardness towards her had quickly grown to modest proposals of turning away from her the minute he saw her; it was, by any means, a technique to avoid her that unfortunately did not quite succeed. Every time he tried to steer away, her cautious eyes suddenly caught on his figure and demanded a conversation instantly. 

It was hell on all accounts. 

First, he neither knew what to say or do, and his hopes that avoiding eye contact with her would provoke her to leave only brought anger in her mind. 

Second, his reputedly red face was something that needed to be explained over and over again with explanations starting from running too much or accidentally dipping his face in hot water. 

Third, every time he saw her, he seemed to be falling for her more and more. 

By all accounts, the third problem was the worst of them all, and sure, just like any other male that had overcome an astonishing revelation, he tried to deny it at first. Which led him to where he was now, sitting on his bed with a wet towel on his hair and his face looking like stone. He crossed his fingers and hoped for luck, hoping that _she_ wouldn't call him down for dinner any time soon.

"Inu-yasha! Dinner's ready!" 

Speak of the devil, he thought, it really wasn't his day. 

-_-_-_-

"Ne…ne, Kagome-oneechan, where's that stupid dog boy?" Shippou asked, seriously perplexed at why Inu-yasha had not come down yet. 

"I don't know, but his dinner's getting pretty cold, and not to mention, it sort of froze underneath the air conditioner too…" 

"Hehe, he deserves it for bopping my head today!" Shippou cackled evilly as he remembered the events of that day. And of course, he knew the reason why Inu-yasha had punched him on the head, it all had to do with Kagome, Kagome, and, Kagome. 

"Shippou! Don't be so mean! Call up Inu-yasha again and bite his ears off or something…" Kagome sighed inwardly and prodded the little boy along, not able to see the reluctance in Shippou's eyes. "Come on, Shippou, it can't be _that_ bad, can it? Inu-yasha's not _that_ scary!" Kagome knew fully well, though, how perfectly frightening Inu-yasha could be, but somehow she had managed to live with him throughout her whole life. Too bad now was the only time she'd actually been enjoying it. 

'Enjoying' it? Those words struck a cord in Kagome's mind for she had never imagined the assoscciation of them with Inu-yasha, and life, unless it had a certain words called 'destruction' in between them. 

"Feh, that's just cause he likes you!" Shippou swore underneath his breath. 

"What's that Shippou?" Kagome asked, bewildered. 

"Oh nothing!"

She watched with interest as the little boy trotted along manically towards Inu-yasha's bedroom, shaking her head and giggling silently, she sat on the sofa and turned on the TV. 

-_-_-_-

"INU-YASHA!" Shipou screamed out at the top of his lungs. 

"That hurt you ass!" Inu-yasha said as he covered his ears, squinching his eyes slightly as his eardrums tried to resound themselves. 

"Hehe, Kagome's calling you for dinner!" 

"Yeah, so?" 

"So if you don't go I'll tell her your little secret!"

"What little secret?" Inu-yasha asked, slightly irritated. 

"You know, the one where INU-YASHA LOVES K-…" 

"SHUT UP BRAT!" Inu-yasha stretched out his arm and pressed his hand onto Shippou's mouth, hoping that it would silence the kid. Instead, Shippou bit his hand with full-frontal force and plucked out a hair from Inu-yasha's head, causing the older boy to retaliate in shock. 

"If you don't come down, I'll really tell her!" Shippou ran out of the room and waved playfully towards Inu-yasha's direction, a broad grin on his face. He skipped down the stairs and plodded himself onto the couch where Kagome sat. Looking up towards the girl, he wondered what she might be thinking of. 

_Inu-yasha loved K…? _Kagome thought, _who is K? I haven't ever met someone with K as the beginning of their name…Argh! Who is it, who is it, who is it????_

By that time, Kagome was already itching with curiosity to find out who 'K' was but after a few minutes of careful consideration, she decided to let the subject go, dismissing "K" for a character in one of Inu-yasha's video games, which he was ironically obsessed with. 

-_-_-_-

"Kagome! I'm going, OK?" Inu-yasha screamed out, grabbing his bag and pushing his way out of the door, not even waiting for her reply. He hopped onto his motor cycle and warmed up the engine, speeding away just in time before Kagome could meet up with him and give him a goodbye wave. The situation had just gotten worse for poor little Inu-yasha, and so he decided to take a trip outside of Tokyo to his grandparent's house. God knew how long he hadn't seen them, was it 6 or 7 years ago? They would be happy to see him, especially his grandfather who always wrote to him asking whether he had a girlfriend or not or whether he had managed to 'score it big' with a woman. It was a mixture of sickening agony and ironic laughter that intertwined in Inu-yasha's heart whenever he received a letter from the old man. Not boterhing to think about it anymore, Inu-yasha let go of his worries and continued on driving. 

Kagome, on the meantime, was wondering exactly why Inu-yasha was becoming more and more distant. She continued to rub her chin using her forefinger and thumb, making her eyebrows delve in thought. 

Could it be yesterday's food? Maybe it was too cold? Or too ancient? Kagome pondered on at these possibilities for a while but dived for a deeper reason. 

Could it be Shippou? Maybe she had started to give the little boy more attention than Inu-yasha and _that_ had caused the distance between them. Kagome grimaced and shook her head, Inu-yasha couldn't possibly be jealous of a little kid, that was just…_wrong…_

After a while of thinking, spluttering out the odd word or two, and rubbing her chin until it burned, Kagome had come to the conclusion that she _had_ no conclusion. 

And so she continued on her work. 

-_-_-_-

Kagome rested on the couch, holding her broom on the ground to support herself. She had just cleaned the entire house free of annoying dustmites and disturbing, prehistoric trashcans that had been filled with garbage since the beginning of last year. The house looked so empty now, perhaps because she had just rid it of the one meter pile high of soda cans, microwave foods, and stray cat droppings. And the smell was different too. When had she last time smelled the fresh scent of  "pinewood" floor cleaner? 2 or 3 years ago probably…which was in it ultimatum, quite sad. A bead of sweat ran down Kagome's forehead as she stood up; leaning her weight into the broom, she carefully exempted herself from falling on the ground due to exhaustion. Kagome looked around the room and found herself staring at one direction. The family altar. 

_It's so dirty_, she thought _maybe I should dust it off, then it would still look brand new…_

Kagome wobbled over towards it with a cleaning cloth and picked up one of the picture frames that was embedded on the altar. More sweat came running down her forehead and her eyelids closed in pain as the sweat entered her eye. She tried wiping it with her sleeve, but didn't succeed in doing so. Deciding to put the picture frame back on the family altar, Kagome placed it randomly on the table like stand, but to her surprise, it ended up dropping on the ground, causing her attention to immediately avert to the broken glass on the floor. 

"Oh no! Not this picture!!!!" Kagome cried out, tears nearly spilling from her eyes. 

"Kagome, what's wrong?" Shippou asked, standing behind her, his eyes wandered to the broken picture frame on the floor, "Oh no, it's a bad omen…" 

"Now, come on, Shippou! There's no such things as bad omens!" Kagome defended herself poignantly, "let's just clean this up and hope that no-one notices, ne?" 

"OK, I promise I won't tell, but if anything bad happens, don't blame me!" 

"Thanks Shippou, and I'm sure nothing bad will ever happen, not for a picture frame!" Kagome smiled, but underneath it all, she wasn't entirely sure of what she was saying…

-_-_-_-

On the first day of Inu-yasha's trip, nothing interesting had happened, but the second day had proved to be full of adventures, starting with the appearance of one, very mysterious woman. 

The doorbell rang early in the morning, Kagome struggled to wake up as she ran down the stairs in her pajamas, brushing her hair quickly using her fingers. She raced towards the door and unlocked it, pulling open the heavy piece of wood. She came to stare at the face of a woman that was only a few years older than her; a woman that she did not even know the name of. 

"If you're selling anything, I don't want to buy it, so bye bye…" Kagome said sleepily, rubbing her eyes and closing the door. She felt slight resistance and her attention immediately averted to the figure outside. 

"I'm not selling anything, Kagome-chan," it said. 

_That voice, when have I heard it?!_

"Do you remember who I am?"

_Who is she?! How do I know here?!_

"My name is Inaida."

_Inaida? Wait! Could it be?!_

"Inaida, Kikyou."

-_-_-_-

"Masaka? You're Kikyou? It can't be! No! You're supposed to be gone!" Kagome gasped, her eyes widening in shock. It wasn't possible, Kikyou wasn't supposed to be here...

"Ah, yes, but a cruel shock of fate decided to let me live. Do you know how hard it was to reach you, Kagome-chan? And to regain back my memory? DO YOU?!" 

[Flashback: 2 years ago]

"Kagome! You know, the new girl, Kikyou, right? Sango asked, her innocent eyes beaming with life. 

"Yeh, what about her?" 

"Well, I heard, that she has a little crush on Inu-yasha!" 

"Inu-yasha? Really? How boring, I feel sorry for her already!"

"Hahaha, and you know what? I heard that he has a little crush on her too!" 

"Oh my, well, isn't that just perfect?"

"And you know what," Sango continued on, "what's even more perfect, is that you can get your revenge on your brother this way!"

"What do you mean?" 

"Well, if we hurt Kikyou, that's the same as hurting _him_, isn't it?" 

"But Sango! That's mean!" Kagome retaliated. 

"Ah, you chicken, come on, let's discuss it with the guys, they'll all back me up!"

- - -

"I agree with you Sango." Miroku said, his eyes fixed on the girl's laughing posture while his hand reared over towards her butt. 

"Now, Miroku, just because you agree with me, doesn't mean I agree with you," Sango grabbed his hand just in time, twisting his wrist a little. When she heard the satisfying little crack, she stepped away. 

"So what the heck do we do to hurt Kikyou that's enough to hurt Inu-yasha?"   
"Get her to go out with another guy?" 

"Too simple."

"Stalk her?" 

"Too old fashioned, he'll only like her more, and she the same."

"Kill her?"

"No way, we'd get found out."

"Get her drunk?"

"I like that idea, there's so many possibilities with that."

"Elaborate."

"Let's see, we invite her to one of our parties, spike her drink and lock her in a room with, let's say, a guy, and then, he and she, you know?" Kouga's eyes glinted as he sparked up his plan. 

"Hmm, quite simple, yet effective enough." Sesshoumaru commented. 

"Hey, why don't we do the party up at your place, Sess, you know, the villa on that mountain, or whatever it is."

"You mean the place we used to go to when we were kids?" 

"Yeh! That place! It's awesome!"

"Come on, we gotta get the party starting!"

- - -

Kagome looked around the room worriedly, first at Kikyou, then at the guy she was supposed to be hooked up with. She wasn't so sure with Sango's choice of person, the guy had been known to be one of the worst seductors in the school, he was also part of the 'bad boy' gang that had acclaimed fame throughout the district as being ruthless and bloodthirsty. Naraku. The freak had no human sentimentality, nor any emotions either. 

_With this, it's going to be quick and easy! _Sango's words lingered inside Kagome's mind and she sighed as her brow clenched in anxiety. 

"Now's not the time to be worried, Kagome." A voice whispered beside her, she looked up to see that it was Kouga. 

"Come on, let's spy on those two!" 

Kagome and Kouga ran towards Kikyou's direction as they watched her take big gulps of the alcoholic drink. Kouga grinned infectively as his eyes continued to leech onto the scene Naraku was making with Kikyou. 

"Come on, baby, let's go outside," Naraku said to her, holding her hand gently while softly letting his fingers linger onto her waist. 

"Are you sure you want a drunk woman with you?" Kikyou asked, pressing her lips against Naraku's own. 

"More than anything," he wrapped his arm around her waist as he winked in the direction of Kouga. 

Kagome smirked smugly as she saw the effects Naraku had on Kikyou. Seems like the little angel wasn't so hot on Inu-yasha after all. Despite all her happiness however, there was some reason as to why she wasn't so sure about the plan. Something about it was….different than what she had earlier on thought she would feel. 

"Come on, kagome, let's dance." Kouga said, taking her hand. But before anything could happen, a loud scream came from outside the house, it was not one of ecstasy, and certainly not one of seductivness, but one of fear. Total, dominating, fear. 

"Oh my God, what's happened?" Kagome whispered, running towards the outside air. 

- --

"Naraku!" Kagome screamed, "What's happened?" 

"I-I-I don't know….she—she fell, off the cliff!" 

"WHAT???!!!! And you didn't try to save her or anything!"

"I did! But she managed to hang on to the cliff! My arm's hurt so I can't pull her up."

"OK, then I will, hold my feet for me so I don't fall off too." 

Kagome walked over towards Kikyou and offered her hand to help the girl. She watched in fear as kikyou let go of one hand's grasp on the cliff and ascended onto Kagome's hand. 

"Don't be afraid, I'll save you, don't worry." Kagome said, as she tried to pull the girl up. Suddenly though, she could feel a heavy metal bar pounding on her head. Trying not to lose consciousness, she screamed in shock as she realized who her attacker was. "Naraku! How dare you!" Kagome spat out, careful not to lose her grip on Kikyou. 

"Oh, come on, Kagome, you gotta have learned by now about how I really am! Do you really think I couldn't save the girl? How stupid you are!" Naraku smirked as he saw the fear in both girls' faces. "Don't worry, I'll deliver you to your rightful peace." 

Naraku rose his arm up and hauled it over Kagome's shivering body. He crashed it down onto the girl's head, causing Kagome to lose her already wavering consciousness. 

A single scream could be heard that night. 

A scream belonging to Kikyou

-_-_-_-

AN: OK, well, I guess your perception's changed on every character in this story…please review! 


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